Mine roof support



MINE ROOF SUPPORT j f ll u' @f 1 i il I l l A I1 il a R1 I// Y /m/fA/rops Uw- ;F-*RANZ GOLLA WlL LY WATERMANN WALTER WEIRICH @Y q @y .A/T'ORNL,

Aug. 20, 1968 F, GOLLA ET Al. 3,397,544

MINE ROOF1 SUPPORT Filed March S, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet z /N//f/vrops FRANZ GOLLA WILLY WATERMANN WALTER, WElRlCH BY l ATTORNEY Aug. 20, 1968 l:- GOLLA ET AL 3,397,544

MINE ROOF SUPPORT Filed March 8, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 FRANZ GOLLA WLLLY WATERMANN WALTER WE .L

BY y

Aug. 20, 1968 f GOLLA ET AL 3,397,544

MINE ROOF SUPPORT Filed March 8, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheffl 4 /Nl/ENTUP FRANZ GOLLA WILLY WATERMANN WALTER WEIRICH United States Patent 3,397,544 MINE ROOF SUPPORT Franz Golla, Altlunen, Willy Watermann, Dortmund- Wambel, and Walter Weirich, Dortmund, Germany, assignors, by mesne assignments, to Gewerkschaft Eisenhutte Westfalia, Altlunen, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Mar. 8, 1966, Ser. No. 532,762 Claims priority, application Germany, Mar. 11, 1965, H 55,434 y l 5 Claims. (Cl. 61-45) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention relates to paired mobile mine roof supporting units between each pair of which are positioned two superimposed hydraulic cylinders that are pivotally connected to the units to permit advance of each unit stepwise through a tunnel irrespective of the quality or slope of the terrain.

It is known in the art of progressive mine exploitation to use mobile or walking mine roof supports comprising two or more frames wherein each frame includes two substantially upstanding props arranged one behind the other in the direction of advancement and disposed by means of ball bearings on cup-shaped prop-'supporting plates. The rst-rnentioned props of a single frame are interconnected by an advancing and guiding unit disposed over the spring elements and their interconnected elements.

The mine roof support of this type uses two independent spring elements one of which is swivelingly jointed at its free ends to the ground-engaging cup-shaped prop-supporting plates and functions as a connecting spring for the base portion, while the other upper spring element is adjustably conjoined with the prop cylinder, normal to the direction of advance, by yoke means and thisarrangeme'n't of elements functions as a support spring.

The associated spring elements are arranged at converging or generally intersecting angles and are tensioned at their medial area whether spaced or not and pivotally secured to the advancing unit. t' As is also known, the connecting parts for thev aforementioned assemblage are shaft stubs which in theiroper'- ating position are firmly joined by means of a fork portion to the inner or outer guiding slot of the advancing unit through an eccentric shaft lug and a tensioning wedge.

`By mea'ns of this known construction good firm stability of the mobile mine roof support is achieved, but also 3,397,544 vPatented Aug. 20, 1968 ice and unevenness often found existing between the roof and the ground in such work areas.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an advancing unit for a mine roof support having two superimposed hydraulic cylinders, each of which is surrounded with guides or rectangular edges, said cylinders being arranged` to be readily removable from spaced connecting means positioned onopposite sides thereof.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a yoke means by which the supporting springs may besecured to the spaced props in a'swiveling manner so that it may shift relative thereto.

Another object of the invention is to provide an interconnecting means pivotally associating the superimposed cylinders with the upper support and lower connecting springs. g

A further object of the invention is to provide a mine roof support capable of transmitting forces from the loaded springs of one frame through the superimposed hydraulic cylinders to an adjacent frame.

In one form of the invention the connecting pieces which interconnect the cylinders to the springs have a height dimension that corresponds to the maximum outside distance of the guides of the superimposed cylinders, whereby it is preferable, for practical reasons concerning storage and easyy exchangeability, to provide two superimposed shaft stub joints which interconnect the two separated guides of the advancing cylinders in a yoke-like manner.

The spring elements are preferably disposed in the connecting piece in a spaced manner. To the connecting piece there are affixed support plates with spacers arranged in such a manner that the distance of these support plates may be changed by an appropriate insertion operation to compensate for height adjustment.

For shiftably securing the supporting spring elements relative to the prop there is provided a U-shaped yoke that is disposed around the prop and which is provided adjacent to a terminal tongue piece with rollers and an elastic intermediate piece. The support springs carry at their end portions a pocket into which there is inserted the tongue of the yoke prior to attaching the support spring to the yoke. T hedimensions of the pockets are such that a wedge `may be adapted to tension the spring against the tongue. Moreover, the terminal portion of the springs may be shifted relative to the tongue. The rollers which are carried on each arrn of theyoke facilitate sliding thereof on permits the mine roof support to yield and adapt itself to 1 uneven ground. The yielding characteristics of this known mine roof support are achieved by means of the inherent elasticity of the springs which cannot only bend but which also absorb torsional stresses transmitted thereto by the two props secured at the opposite ends thereof. The forces to which this type of mine roof support may be exposed are in a certain sense limited. This means 'that mine roof supports of this general type may be used for either substantially sloping tunnels of medium thickness (that is, 30 degrees slope and two meters of thickness) or slightly sloping and substantially thick tunnels (for example, live degrees slope and up to three meters thickness).

' Accordingly, it is one of the objects of the invention to extend the use of mine roof supports of the aforementioned ty'pe to tunnels having a substantial slope and a the prop as well 'as the transmission of the torsional and bending forces' of the prop to the supporting springs whereby the elastic intermediate piece operates in a similar manner.

Inga further modification of the invention there is also Vshown an improved'construction which will permit adaptation of this new principle to the Weirich et al'. application SenNo. 480,440,` now `Patent No. 3,344,316 filed on Aug. 17,1965, and assigned lto the assignee of this application. The walking mine roof support according to'the improvements disclosed lin this invention ensures a more positive transmission of forces of the loaded springs of one frame ltot he adjacent parallel frame or frames by means of using two superimposed hydraulic cylinders with the separate guide means being adapted to cooperate with the correspondingly dimensioned connecting pieces, such as fork pieces, with the bolts at the separated guides and at the leafl springs disposed in an opposed manner in a yoke-like shape. It is of particular significance, however, that the pre-tensioning of the support springs may be easily set due to the afore-mentioned design of the support spring joint 'as will be set forth in more detail as the specification progresses.

It is known to use two superimposed advancing cylinders in walking mine roof supports. However, these known advancing cylinders have a common external guide means which resembles a C in cross-section. This guide means, being generally similar to a connecting plank between the two hydraulic cylinders, is firmly connected to the flat connecting means between the props over at, leaf-like elements. It is neither possible nor proposed by use of this known construction to transmit the spring loading forces from one side of the mine roof support to the other. It has been found that in case of overloading, the common C-shaped guide means will bend and deforrn if it has to assume an excessive force. This disadvantage has never been experienced in the mine roof support construction according to the present invention because, as mentioned above, the forces are transmitted therethrough to the adjacent parallel frames and such a number of springing elements Iis available that the load to each individual part remains small.

Other obje-cts and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the walking mine roof support;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view along lines A A of FIG. l;

FIG. 4 is a plan View `along lines IV-IV of FIG. l;

FIG. 5 is a sectional front elevational view of the basic form of the connecting piece and its attachment to the guides; and

FIG. 6 shows schematically a pre-tensioned prop positioned in a sloping tunnel.

Turning now to the drawings, and more particularly FIG. l, each frame comprises upstanding props 1 1 which are disposed within the upstanding cup-shaped plates 2 2 preferably by means of ball joints 1a 1a and carry at their upper ends cap members 3, not forming a part of this invention. The aligned props of one mine roof support are interconnected by means of an upper support spring element 4 with a lower connecting spring element 5 being swivelingly attached to the cup-shaped plates 2 2. As is clearly shown in this particular view, the medial area of the springs 4 and 5 are held in spaced -relation by plate means 7 7 and are maintained in a substantially rigid relation by means of the transversely apertured bolt 8 through the apertures of which a Wedge piece 9a is inserted.

Further, from the side elevational view of FIG. 1, as the cross-section of FIG. 3, it will be understood that the apertured plate means 10-10 are rigidly secured to the spring supporting means 7 7 and are assembled in spaced relation to each other on opposite sides thereof. Said means 10-10 have arranged adjacent to their edge portions spaced rows of apertures and slots for a purpose that will become apparent as the description progresses.

The superimposed advancing cylinders 12 and 13 (FIGS. 3 and 5) are provided with a square cross-section which is longitudinally ribbed as at 14 in order to slidingly engage the interior of the rectangular externally-spaced guides 15 and 16. The ribbed internal guide members 14 14 are provided with olstanding integral enlargements 17-17, to the free ends of each of which there are attached the forked pieces 18-18 which function as a support means for the spaced ears 19-19 (FIG. 4) and these are interconnected or immobilized by means of key pieces or wedges 20.

The attachment of the supporting springs to the upstanding props 1 1 is carried out by means of yokes 21 21 and include rollers 22-22 which are disposed in parallel relation on the arms of the yoke and are secured for rotation relative thereto by means of the transversely extending plates 23 and are held in contact with 21-21 by the sleeves 24. The terminal ends of springs 4 4 are provided with inverted U-shaped pockets 25 to which they are securely fastened by means of pins 26 26.

Subsequently, in order to provide a unitary assembly, a wedge 27 is driven laterally into the pocket.

The setting of the mining support may be carried out before use or, in the case of a changing slope, by removing the wedge 27 from the U-shaped pocket, as described, thus freeing the yokes 21 21 and releasing the support spring element 4 from the upstanding props 1 1. The props may be now set in any desired manner, slanting or otherwise, and at such a distance that they produce the desired presetting force of the supporting springs 4 and 5. The upstanding props 1 1 are then secured in their then slanted position by correspondingly shifting the pocket 25 relative to the support, as previously explained, and then the props are eventually again secured by means of the wedge 27. By referring at this time to FIG. 6, it will be understood that an angle a now appears between the props and the support springs and this angle a is related to the slope angle ,8.

If the props end to swing towards the slope during operation, the spring elements 4 and 5 exert a resetting force thereto. Since the spring systems of both frames are coupled together according to the invention, it is possible to achieve large resetting forces. The simple spring leaf, heretofore known to the prior art, would be permanently deformed and thus would not be able to take up such torques as those achieved by use of this new system.

It is further significant that the supporting springs 4 and the connecting springs 5 are arranged to be supported in spaced-apart or separated relation in a height adjusting manner so that the support springs may be exposed to excessive torques which will, however, have no effect whatsoever on the connecting spring and thus the groundengaging position of the prop plates 2 2 is not affected by the operation of the support springs 4.

As referred to earlier in this application, one embodiment of the invention is particularly useful for adaptation to the mine roof support `assembly described in Weirich et al. application Ser. No. 480,440, led on Aug. 17, 1965, and this is best shown in FIG. 5.

1n this embodiment of the invention the supporting and connecting sprin-gs, as shown, are held in abutted relation by the 'apertured bolt 30` and transverse wedge means 31. This assembly, and it is believed that those skilled in the art will readily appreciate this from the description provided in connection with the other embodiment disclosed, can be rigidly associated with transversely extending connecting plate means 32-32, the opposed edge portions of which are welded or otherwise integrated to form a rigid assembly \with longitudinally extending elements 33 33. Elements 33 33 are dove-tail slotted or keyed in such a manner (not shown) to facilitate assembly therewith 0f the superimposed cylinders 12 and 13.

It is also believed to be apparent to one skilled in the art how the inventive concept disclosed in connection with the apertured plates 10-10' could be modified to utilize the teaching of the longitudinally extending plate means 33 33 and their dove-tailed slotted means which yare adapted to support the superimposed cylinders shown in FIG. 5.

Accordingly, it is believed that from the foregoing description it will be clear how the height adjustment may be etfectuated by either system disclosed herein.

Thus, by this teaching the ideal point of attack by the forces may be set approximately in the middle of the prop. The shorter the springing lever of the support spring, the greater may be the force exerted on the setting pocket 25. The angle at is determined by the length of the support 24 and there is an ample reserve in the conditions of the ground. It is possible to counteract the changed swinging moments in case of more substantial slopes and it is also possible to adjust the mine exploitation at any time to the changed operating conditions.

Although two embodiments of the invention have been depicted and described, it will be apparent that these embodiments are illustrative in nature and that a number of modifications in the apparatus and variations in its end use may be eiected without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as dened in the appended claims.

That which is claimed is:

1. A mobile mine roof support system comprising in combination, a plurality of unitary structures each comprising a pair of spaced, upstanding props and separate ground engaging means under each prop, power means for raising 4and lowering the said props, a plurality of vertically aligned and spacedly arranged spring means conjoining each pair of props and said ground engaging means, and transversely disposed connecting means supporting said spring means in vertically aligned, superimposed spaced relation, and at least a pair of superimposed power operated advancing means disposed normal to and intermediate of said unitary structures and connected to said transversely disposed connecting means.

2. A mobile mine roof support means as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transversely-disposed connecting means comprise plate-like members having parallel edge portions with substantially vertically aligned means secured in rigid spaced relation by horizontally disposed plate means.

said plate means.

5. A mobile mine roof support means as claimed in claim 1, wherein the advancing means disposed normal to and intermediate of at least a pair of said unitary structures is pivotally connected to said transversely-disposed perforated connecting means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1967 Blaser et al. 61-45 7/ 1967 Weirich 61-45 JACOB SHAPIRO, Primary Examiner. 

